On September 18, more than 3.6 million Scots cast a ballot answering the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” In the weeks leading up to the vote, the leaders of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties vowed to cede some powers from the UK government to the Scottish Parliament if a majority of Scottish voters rejected independence. The Telegraph reports the leaders of the 3 main parties “argued it would provide ‘certainty’ for Scottish voters that further devolution would follow a No vote and contrasted this with the doubts over a separate Scotland’s finances, currency and public spending.” The legislation for devolution has yet to be written, however the plan is to give “the Scottish Parliament more control over income tax and housing benefit.” see more…

In early September, it was revealed that Yahoo had been threatened with a fine of $250,000 per day for failing to hand over information to the federal government. Details of the threat became public after 1,500 pages worth of documents were unsealed in the case, stemming from a 2007 order from the FISA Court. Wired reports, “Yahoo applied to appeal the [FISA] decision and requested a stay in the data collection pending the appeal. But the FISA Court refused the stay, and beginning in March 2008, Yahoo was forced to comply with the request for data in the meantime ‘under threat of civil contempt.’
Five months later, in August 2008, the FISA Court of Review found that the data request, undertaken for national security reasons, qualified for an exception to the warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment and upheld the original court’s order to comply.” see more…

Now that school is back in session, the question of school choice has once again been raised. On the surface, it seems like an obvious question: should parents be allowed to choose which school their children attends? On the surface, it seems like the answer is obvious: YES!

It began as an epic family feud with seemingly everyone in New England taking sides. CNN reports, “The dispute began in June when the company’s board replaced [Arthur T.] Demoulas, who was beloved for his leadership but had long feuded with his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, over control of the family-owned company. Arthur S. and his family controlled 50.5% of the shares of the company.” see more…

A senior White House official has said that President Obama will review the programs that allow local police to obtain militarized weapons and equipment. The Washington Post reports, “The review probably will include the Defense Department’s Excess Property program, which is designed to give away tents, generators, pickup trucks and all-terrain vehicles, as well as military aircraft, grenade launchers and heavily armed tactical vehicles. That program has distributed $4.3 billion worth of equipment since 1997.” see more…

Over the past week, eyes around the world have been on Fergson, Missouri. There have been protests and candle light vigils every night since August 9. Some of the protests have turned violent with police firing teargas and rubber bullets at both protesters and reporters, and looting by some of the protesters. The protests and vigils were sparked after police killed an unarmed teenager shortly after noon on Saturday, August 9 as the teen was walking away from the police with his hands in the air pleading, “Don’t shoot, I’m not armed.” see more…

At the beginning if the year, cannabis was re-legalized in Colorado. Those opposed to the move predicted dire results for the Rocky Mountain State, including increased usage and a rise in stoned drivers causing an increase in traffic fatalities.

Those opposed to the re-legalization cite examples of more people testing positive for cannabis in their system, which doesn’t prove the person was actually high at the moment of testing, only that the person had consumed cannabis within the past couple of weeks. Radley Balko writes, “one dubious example, in which the Colorado Highway Patrol and some local and national media perpetuated a story that a driver was high on pot when he slammed into a couple of police cars parked on an interstate exit ramp. While the driver did have some pot in his system, his blood-alcohol level was off the charts and was far more likely the cause of the accident.”

However, the media reports of this accident didn’t mention alcohol as being involved. Could it be that the media reports, which included briefings by the police, were being written in a way to further an agenda? Could it be that because alcohol has been legal longer, and is more accepted, that the media decided to gloss over a drunk-driving accident to perpetuate the myth of the danger of stoned-drivers? see more…

I’ve spent considerable time studying ballot access laws and election results, I’ve even written a book on the topic. One thing that is obvious is that election rules are rigged to support the parties in power. This is so obvious, that according to a recent poll by Rasmussen, 68% of voters think election rules are rigged to favor incumbents and are unfair to voters. see more…

I’ve been following the news about Uber and Lyft for some time. For those unfamiliar, Uber and Lyft are taxi-like services that allow people to schedule rides using an app on their smartphone. Unlike traditional taxis, riders are able to leave reviews on drivers, and drivers are able to leave reviews for passengers. This acts as a sort of reputation system, which helps drivers know if a passenger is to be avoided, and vice versa. Customers of Uber and Lyft also know the price of the ride upfront, something that is incredibly rare with a traditional taxi. And, probably the most important feature of Uber & Lyft that make these services distinct from traditional taxi services is the decentralized nature of the business, there is no central office through which rides are dispatched, it is all handled through the smartphone app. see more…

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to crackdown on commercial usage of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly called drones. In March, it was reported that the FAA had issued a cease-and-desist order to the Washington Nationals baseball team because the team was using a quad-copter to take publicity photos at the team’s spring training facility. This drone, flying within the confines of the baseball stadium was, according to FAA, somehow going to interfere with aircraft that were flying at heights upward of 30,000 feet. Pointing out the hilarity of the situation, a team official told the Associated Press “No, we didn’t get it cleared, but we don’t get our pop flies cleared either and those go higher than this thing did.” see more…

There were recently two major announcements regarding private businesses.

The first from the US Supreme Court which ruled “the regulations promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services requiring employers to provide their female employees with no-cost access to contraception violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).”see more…

A social experiment occurred last week in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This experiment took place during the huge gathering that is the Porcupine Freedom Festival.

The Porcupine Freedom Festival (PorcFest) is the signature event hosted by the Free State Project, “an agreement among 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property.” see more…

I think most people will say they want to have a place of their own. I count myself among that group, though I have also said that I never want to buy land because of property taxes. I also love to travel. Some people have combined their home with their ability to travel and bought RV’s or other portable living spaces, and the idea has always fascinated me. I’ve also been interested in tiny-homes (houses less than 1,000 square feet) for several years. see more…

A young man by the name of Erik Finman has received a fair amount of news in the recent weeks after it came to light that he made a six-figure profit on a bitcoin investment, and then opened his own business.

In 2012, Finman received $1,000 from his grandmother and invested it in bitcoin.

Mashable.com reports, nearly 18 months later, he sold his investment for $100,000 “and used the earnings to launch Botangle.com, an online tutoring service that runs on video chat.” see more…

This September, voters in Scotland will be asked whether or not the nation should leave the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And according to a recent poll, support for Scottish independence is at 46% (once undecideds are removed). The poll also found that two-thirds of people across England, Scotland & Wales expect the bid for independence to be rejected. see more…

Most recently a judge from the 6th Circuit ruled, even though Rep. John Conyers did not have enough valid signatures to rightfully be placed on the ballot, that “because his failure to comply with the law appeared to be a good faith mistake,” Conyers should be placed on the ballot anyways. see more…

The FEC has become the latest agency to issue guidelines on the usage of Bitcoin. On May 8, the six-members of the FEC issued an Advisory Opinion at the request of Make Your Laws PAC (MYL), a nonpartisan political action committee that supports “making every legislature a liquid democracy.” This advisory opinion was actually an approval of MYL’s third draft proposal for an opinion on whether or not the PAC could accept Bitcoin. The original proposal by MYL would have “allowed” them, and all PACs, to accept Bitcoin donations online, only “after the contributor provides their information, and only through a ‘one-time linked address’ system that makes it harder to contribute in someone else’s name” and donations would be limited to $100 worth of Bitcoin (per contributor, per election). see more…

Apple, which has a plurality share of the smartphone market, has once again taken Samsung to court for supposed theft. Apple sought over $2 billion in damages for patent infringement. CNET reports, “The jury found all of Samsung’s accused gadgets infringed Apple’s ‘quick links’ patent but that none infringed the ‘universal search’ patent or the ‘background sync’ patent. Results were mixed for the ‘slide to unlock’ patent, with some Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Nexus, found to infringe [on the patent], and others found not to [infringe on the patent]…
The jury awarded Apple only $119.6 million for Samsung’s infringement.” see more…

Last week, the Russian Parliament passed a law creating a new legal term for some independent journalists: “Internet user called blogger.”

The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reports that “bloggers will be obliged to declare their family name and initials and e-mail address, and those authors whose personal website or page in social networks are visited more than 3,000 times per day must register on a special list, and abide by restrictions applicable to the mass media.” see more…

There have been several somewhat strange petitions on the White House petition website, some have even received enough digital signatures to warrant an official response, even if that response is “we can’t comment.” One of the most recent petitions to receive a “we can’t comment” response involved a petition to deport Justin Bieber, who apparently is Canadian. see more…

President Obama recently gave a speech in which he claimed that voting rights were under attack, saying “The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago,” adding “Across the country, Republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote.”

No one can deny that fact.

In fact, the New York Times reports, “Over the last 15 months, at least nine states have enacted voting changes making it harder to cast ballots. A federal judge last month upheld laws in Arizona and Kansas requiring proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or a passport, leading other states to explore following suit.” see more…

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